A Reddit user is claiming to be a whistleblower from the Federal Reserve...

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2cpew8/game_changer_bitcoin_research_at_the_federal/

He seems a bit more serious than other "whistleblowers" I've seen, promising proof to come and an AMA. Basically, he claims to be a researcher, and that his team was put to work on an economic simulation involving Bitcoin. They concluded that Bitcoin would overtake the US dollar as early as 2021, and that it completely disrupts everything they understand about economics and monetary policy. He claims their superiors didn't like these conclusions, and hid the research while relocating the researchers to lesser roles.

[knight22]

I hope he will bring sufficient proofs because this is kind of hard to believe at first.

[waldox]

lets blast the researchers with bitcoins   muhahaha =)

[commandrix]

Just saw this. Interesting story, if unverified. Sounds to me like exactly the kind of thing that the U.S. government sometimes does when it doesn't like the message. Do some lookups on what they did to poor Oppenheimer when he became politically "inconvenient" and wouldn't shut up about what the nuclear bomb was doing to military strategies.

[jjc326]

I do see interesting research papers by the different Fed. Reserve Banks (there are several in different regions of the country) and sometimes they are a little more diverse than I think they would be, being the Fed. Reserve.  Hopefully he has some cool info and documents to back up what he's saying.  But still, all this suspense he's creating seems weird, why not just be out with the information and proof?

[bitcoinanon]

I am intrigued. And I patiently wait for validation.

[TaunSew]

The thing is crypto currencies don't even work like real world currencies, they operate more like commodities due to speculation.

  Dot com bubble in the late 1990s was $7 trillion while the M1 monetary supply (IIRC) is close to $3 trillion now.  Does that mean Dot com overtook the $Fiat?   

I think it's possible for crypto currencies to be worth trillions in the upcoming years.

[michaelwang33]

I would personally think he is full of it. It is very unlikely IMO that someone who "blow the whistle" on reddit. It is just not the kind of forum that you can easily show proof. It would be much more effective if he were to go to congress or go to the MSM who could verify his story but keep his identity private.

[twiifm]

I would personally think he is full of it. It is very unlikely IMO that someone who "blow the whistle" on reddit. It is just not the kind of forum that you can easily show proof. It would be much more effective if he were to go to congress or go to the MSM who could verify his story but keep his identity private.

Yeah why not use wikileaks?

[Beliathon]

7 years actually sounds longer than I imagined. Then again, many americants still believe in angels, I guess it should come as no surprise they still (and will still) believe in the dollar.

[franky1]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2cpew8/game_changer_bitcoin_research_at_the_federal/

He seems a bit more serious than other "whistleblowers" I've seen, promising proof to come and an AMA. Basically, he claims to be a researcher, and that his team was put to work on an economic simulation involving Bitcoin. They concluded that Bitcoin would overtake the US dollar as early as 2021, and that it completely disrupts everything they understand about economics and monetary policy. He claims their superiors didn't like these conclusions, and hid the research while relocating the researchers to lesser roles.

or it could be that his theory was sooooo exaggerated that his bosses thought
"hmm maybe this guy is not as smart as we thought, and is exaggerating statistics that are plain to be seen... lets stick him in the back office as we cant just sack him."

though i want bitcoin to succeed, i always try to keep a level head and try to take every detail into consideration from both sides of the fences

[TheGull]

I would personally think he is full of it. It is very unlikely IMO that someone who "blow the whistle" on reddit. It is just not the kind of forum that you can easily show proof. It would be much more effective if he were to go to congress or go to the MSM who could verify his story but keep his identity private.

Yeah why not use wikileaks?

Possibly, but you could argue that Reddit is the right place to talk to a bitcoin audience (you could also argue that Reddit is the best place to spread a made up story, so hard to know).

I really want to believe this, but it is hard not to be skeptical. The broader support you can claim for the story is that: the Fed governor and her predecessor have both made good noises about bitcoin which proves they are looking at it; and it is believable that the Fed would commission a serious study of bitcoin's potential given it is the Fed's job to stay on top of the financial system (whether they do that well or not I will leave to others to decide).

[beetcoin]

i think it's bullshit. if the government knew about this tidbit of information, they would set up an all out attack on bitcoin to regulate the shit out of it. despite what some evanglists say, regulation can stop bitcoin. you guys think dell, overstock and all those companies would be accepting bitcoin if the government banned it? coinbase would go belly up too.

and let's talk about bitcoin overtaking american dollars by 2021.. that's just total bullshit. there needs to be a shit ton of support for bitcoin, even with the lowest common denominator (like older people who are luddites).

[franky1]

everyone read the OP again.

it is not revealing government secrets. it is simply someone with statistics that theorizes bitcoins dominance will happen in 2021. it is not factual data, as the year is not 2021 for it to be verified.

its just a theory based on statistical data that some researchers have put together.

again it is not "whistleblowing" any corporate data that could be considered as corporate espionage. so take it with a pinch of salt.

in short more speculation.

here is why im not bothered by the speculation.
1. for bitcoin to dominate FIAT the whole confirm time and block data limit needs to be sorted to allow for ALOT more transactions to occur per second, just to compete against FIAT.
2. the FedRes does not know when or how the confirm time, block data limit will be sorted, without this schule knowledge no statistics can be accurate
3. even the bitcoin dev's dont know when and most definetly have not released any schedule of when or how it will increase tx/s

so any theory about bitcoin domination cannot even be calculated without knowing the confirm time, block data limit update schedule.

[jl2012]

You don't need rocket science to learn that bitcoin will be a game changer IF it ever becomes moderately successful. The only real question is whether it will become successful.

[Possum577]

Why would he hide the research if he was paid to conduct it?

[Possum577]

Just saw this. Interesting story, if unverified. Sounds to me like exactly the kind of thing that the U.S. government sometimes does when it doesn't like the message. Do some lookups on what they did to poor Oppenheimer when he became politically "inconvenient" and wouldn't shut up about what the nuclear bomb was doing to military strategies.

Hahaha, it's an interesting story if it's unverified? Meaning, if the OP made this shit up you'd find it interesting but you wouldn't find it interesting if it's a TRUE story?

[CryptoDomains]

Wait, why is he a whistleblower again, what did the fed do wrong by having a study done.

I would be more shocked if they didn't.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

Wait, why is he a whistleblower again, what did the fed do wrong by having a study done.

I would be more shocked if they didn't.

The OP claimed to be "blowing the whistle" on the government's attempts to cover up his research findings; according to him, they did not want information about it to reach the public.

[Razick]

Until this is verified I'm going to ignore it. This is quite a claim to post with no evidence whatsoever.